How to Speed Up Your PC

PCPitstop is one of those resources you need, but don’t realize it until you need it! These guys have been around for nearly a decade now, and their reputation is rock-solid. They have a feature called “Ask an Expert” – and they’ve asked me to answer one of the questions. Candace is wondering how she can speed up her computer. She defrags regularly, and isn’t sure what more she can do.

There are several things you can do, Candace. Memory could speed things up, although there’s a law of diminishing returns. Since you didn’t mention a specific operating system, I know you’re running Windows due to the mention of running a defrag. If you’re using Vista – stop it. Spring forward to the Windows 7 beta, or roll back to XP. Even if you like Vista, you still have to realize how much of a resource hog it can be. The operating system is as important as the software you’re running on it.

Defragging is only going to help you so much. If your hard drive is full – consider cleaning it up. Store some of your videos, pictures and documents on a separate storage drive. If your hard drive is full, it definitely will not run at optimal importance.

Another option is to upgrade your hard drive itself. Consider switching from the HDD hard drive you likely have to a Solid State Drive. The problem could be due to the bottleneck speed of your current hard drive.

It’s difficult to guess at what will work best here, since I don’t know the full specs of the system. However, I’m willing to wager that the problem is bottleneck with the hard drive. I couldn’t believe how much faster my own personal machine ran after upgrading myself to the Samsung SSD.

How else can Candace make her computer faster? Let’s make this a community effort – if you have an answer to this, please feel free to leave your thoughts in a follow-up comment to this video.

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there is nothing, repeat nothing wrong with vista post sp1. this is a fact that you all ready know. this one should have been thrown out to the community to answer. does she ever clear out her junk files, has she disabled unneeded services, has she shut down uac, has she disabled microsoft’s security apps and replaced them with third party apps, has she disabled notification from security center, has she stopped all software from auto updating, etc…? bashing an operating system that only has a few problems is not going to solve her problems.

Windows 7 does offer many great features aside from enhanced performance and increased speed — there is also advanced security and fantastic stability. To learn more about 7, the features and benefits it offers and to get some helpful tips / tricks, head on over to Microsoft Springboard today.

RAM does it every time if everything else is working properly, especially in Xp. Older systems may not be able to add any RAM. See the conclusion to find out how to check.
BUT!
1. If your browser is the only thing running slow it is often due to tracking cookies all trying to be the first to throw ads at you that you may not have known about. These can be removed by any of several good malware identifying programs, each finding slightly different types of malware. These free ones are all available from MajorGeeks.com. They are first line defense for Xp but somewhat redundant in Vista and DEFINITLY NOT ALLOWED in Win7 because they catch all of the google stuff.
I recommend Spybot S&D which also uses a tea timer real time protection that notifies you if a registry change is about to occur. Of course Vista security does that automatically if you have not fiddled with the settings.
AdAware 2007 should be used to scan once a month because it finds most of what S&D is not really looking for. 2o07 and the like. NOTE: if you use the Anniversary version it will only slow your PC down more due to it’s Adwatch feature that is not available on the earlier free versions.
2. A seriously dragging PC needs to buy PestPatrol. Well worth the cost because it can permanantly remove the most stubborn trojans that hide future scheduled implants and those that instantly write a new startup file as part of their deletion. (beeps when you go to classmates.com to let you know their little “Gain” buddy got caught and was blocked.)
3. Often overlooked is your ISP’s true connection speed. You can peek at it by checking the status of your connection from the start menu>network>connection properties or just expand the downloader window to view details as you download any large file. RoadRunner Lite cable ISP for instance offered by Earthlink typically is transferring data at 70 to 120kbs which is not much progress from the old dial up rates of 156kbs now is it?
DSL in a well populated area can be lightening fast.
I live so far out from any switching relays that Embarq could not guarantee even their slowest of 5 speed offerings @200kbs, but during non busy server times like when everyone is getting home at 5PM and checking email, I can often see 600-800 speeds.
That is another confusing point.
If you do not monitor your connection with an icon in the system tray, you may see slow browser speed simply because your PC has sent it’s packets to the internet and is patiently waiting for the server at your favorite site to reply. Especially if you visit many of the social networking sites that cram as much flash/shockwave/video content that they can on each page.
So, it may not be the PC’s fault if things are slow. I will tell you that if you have only 512MB of RAM, your system is not capable of quickly rendering the complex graphics and video that are a part of todays internet. From the start menu right click COMPUTER or on Xp, My Computer and select properties to open the system information window. On the general tab towards the bottom you can see exactly what your PC recognizes as installed RAM and the processor speed. Anything slower than 700Mhz is a lost cause on todays internet if you get frustrated waiting for windows to open and programs to start.
Before you buy a new computer, go to crucial.com and use their analyzer install to see if your motherboard can accept any more RAM and exactly which type.

Browser clogged with cookie crumbs, spy ware ,mall ware etc. Programs running at start up I don’t even need there to run at start-up. Adobe is a frequent pest. If I need him I’ll get him. I don’t need a live in lazy servant. I upgraded my ram and added a gig. Not expensive, didn’t notice anything. Fired Verizon DSL at $22 a month at sometime speeds of 1mps. I got cable for $30 a month for broadband at 20mps. Dramatic improvement. I seem to be lucky where I live as I’m not competing with everybody on my service.throughput., which is an issue for some using cable for internet.